“Does she really expect Earwig to answer back?”
“Maybe,” Judith allowed, signaling for Renie to hush. Before she could hear any words, Kate turned in their direction. Judith poked Renie. “Pretend to study this tombstone,” she whispered.
“It’s David Piazza’s,” Renie murmured. “The roses Moira brought last week look pretty beat up.”
“Speak to Kate,” Judith urged. “She thinks you’ve got the sight.”
“Half the sight,” Renie retorted. “She’s better off with Marie playing the part of a medium.”
Judith grabbed Renie’s arm. “Do it.”
With a sigh of resignation, Renie walked over to the Gunn family plot. Judith trailed behind.
“Hi, Kate,” Renie said. “The spirits must be on vacation.”
Kate gave a start and turned around to scowl at Renie. “You! What happened? Your eye!”
Renie shrugged. “A chronic condition, affecting my vision. In fact, I have no sight at all of the type you mean. I’m a phony. Sorry.”
Judith stopped abruptly, unable to believe that Renie would blurt out the truth.
Kate made a menacing gesture. “Fraud! Liar! How dare you? I should’ve known you were evil when I met you in the woolen shop!”
“That’s pushing it,” Renie said. “I’m kind of crabby, but not evil. My intentions were good.”
Kate looked puzzled. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re a mother, I’m a mother,” Renie explained. “Quite a few young men around here, including one of your sons, have died before their time. That’s a horrible thing. I felt guilty about getting into it with you at the shop. I wanted to make it up to you after I found out about your background and your interests.”
“My interests?” Kate looked even more confused.
“Astrology, for one thing. I…well, to pretend I could help you.” Renie made a limp gesture. “It was stupid of me.”
Kate’s gaze moved to Judith, who had come up behind Renie. “That cape! And the hood! She was the witch I saw in my herb garden!”
“No,” Renie said, “that was me, wearing my cousin’s cape.”
“Americans are very peculiar,” Kate muttered. “I find your actions deplorable. You’ve no idea how vital the spirit world really is. You mock it. You mock me. I can’t forgive you.”
“Okay.” Renie shrugged. “I hope you get a message from Ear—Eanruig. It’s difficult to make sound business decisions these days. The real world’s all topsy-turvy.”
Kate turned her back on Renie. Judith finally spoke up. “I’m sorry, too,” she said, “even if you’re not in a forgiving mood. We’ll leave you in peace now.”
The cousins started walking away, but before they got more than a few feet from the Gunn memorial, Kate called out to them. “Wait!”
“Yes?” Judith said, turning back.
“If you don’t have the sight,” Kate said to Renie, “how did you know I needed business advice?”
Hoping Renie wouldn’t reveal spying on the séance at the pub or eavesdropping on Kate and Philip’s conversation at Grimloch, Judith held her breath.
“Your husband was a shrewd businessman,” Renie said. “If you came here to commune with his spirit, you must be seeking his counsel.”
“Ah.” Kate’s homely features softened. “That’s so. You’re perceptive, I’ll say that for you.”
“Good luck,” Renie said. “The shipping business is always risky. At least whiskey is one product that rarely has a downswing.”
Kate frowned. “Meaning…what?”
“Uh…” Renie faltered. “Gosh, I don’t know. I thought I’d heard that you were involved in some kind of negotiations with Philip Fordyce.”
“We’ve shipped his whiskey for years,” Kate said. “That’s not new.”
“Oh.” Renie looked sheepish. “I haven’t been here long enough to know all the local commercial connections. I do know that oil and water don’t mix, and neither do oil and whiskey.”
Kate shot Renie a sharp look. “Why not?”
Renie wore her most ingenuous expression. “I don’t know.”
“It seems,” Kate said stiffly, “that there’s a great deal you don’t know. Just like the police. It seems they have no idea who killed Harry Gibbs or Chuckie Fordyce. ‘Malicious mischief’ indeed!”
She stalked past the cousins and headed out of the graveyard.
Renie frowned. “Kate and Philip in a takeover of Blackwell?”
“Sounds crazy,” Judith said, leaving the Gunn family plot behind, “but not impossible. It’s not the only interesting thing, though.”
“Such as?”
“Kate wasn’t at the inquest,” Judith said. “I know, I looked for her. How did she know the magistrate’s conclusion?”
“Aha. Kate has a small hole in the wall of the Women’s Institute?”
Judith nodded. “This entire investigation is full of holes. Why do I have a feeling that we could step in one and never get out?”
Renie shuddered. “Not a good thing to say in a cemetery. A really bad thing to say since that’s what happened to Chuckie.”
Judith nodded again, her expression grim. “That’s what scares me. I wish our husbands would come back. I’m worried about them.”
The sun was peeking from behind the shifting clouds, but the weather’s improvement didn’t lift Judith’s spirits. “I don’t care what you say about fishermen,” she declared as they reached the village green, “I’m calling Joe.” She dug her cell phone out of her purse and dialed.
After six rings, a message came on, telling her that the person at this number was unavailable. Frowning, Judith stared thoughtfully in the direction of the now deserted Women’s Institute. “I’ll call the Glengarry Castle Hotel. Where did I put that information?” She did some more digging in her purse. “Ah. Here it is.”
“You’re nuts,” Renie murmured. “They’ll be fishing this morning.”
“I know,” Judith agreed, “but I can leave a message. Hello?” she said as a woman’s voice answered on the other end. “I’m calling for Joe Flynn. This is his wife. Is he in?”
“He left yesterday,” the woman informed her in a brusque tone.
“Oh.” Judith glanced at Renie who had walked over to the drooping banner and was trying to rip it down from the tree where it had been hung. “I assume Mr. Jones and Mr. MacGowan went with him.”
“Yes,” the woman said.
“Did they tell you where they’d gone?” Judith inquired.
“No.”
Judith tried to remember what Joe had told her about their plans. “I thought,” she said, “they were going to do some sightseeing in your area. Ben Nevis, Beauly Firth, a castle ruin close by. Didn’t they expect to stay at your hotel for at least another night or two?”
“Yes.” The woman sounded rather testy. “They were booked through tonight. They didn’t bother to check out, so I charged their partial stay to Mr. MacGowan’s credit card and added a cancellation fee. It was, if I may say so, quite rude of them.”
Alarmed, Judith motioned to Renie, who had succeeded in yanking down the banner and was stuffing it into a dustbin. “Did they take their belongings with them?” Judith asked.
“Not all of it. But they also put at least six fish in our freezer. Shall I send everything on to you?”
“Could you hold for a moment?” Judith said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice and putting a hand over the cell. “Coz!” she whispered urgently to Renie, who was coming toward her. “The husbands are missing!”
20
What do you mean, ‘missing’?” Renie responded with an anxious expression.
Judith explained what the woman at the hotel had just told her. “Joe and Bill wouldn’t walk out of a hotel and leave stuff behind.”
“How can they get into trouble when they’re with a topnotch policeman?” Renie demanded. “Maybe they intended to come back but the fishing got so hot wherever they were that they decided to stay put.”